Bacon's Rebellion

  • Private Equity in Medicine

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    To add to those revealed in  James Sherlock’s excellent posts about nursing homes and the health care industry generally, here is another culprit–private equity firms.  They buy up medical practices in an area, creating great bargaining power with insurance companies, and begin raising prices.  The fight is between giant, merged insurance companies and giant, merged medical practices.  The losers are patients and the winners are the private investors.

    Today’s Washington Post has a long article describing how this happened with anesthesia practices in the Denver area.  The company, U.S. Anesthesia Partners, which calls itself a physician-owned company, was, in reality, created by the private equity firm, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, which owns 55 percent of the stock.

  • Nursing Shortages Require Better Oversight of Virginia Nursing Homes – Part Two – State Action Required

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Patterns of understaffing, medical harm and abuse in nursing homes are traceable:

    • in some cases to a business model of understaffing to increase profits. Federal fines are built into the business models of the bad actors. Some of the worst post double-digit annual operating margins;
    • in some to other systemic chain-wide issues, perhaps financial instability; and
    • in yet others to local management incompetence and other site-specific issues.

    Regardless of the reason, Virginia regulators and law enforcement agencies must execute the roles they are legally charged to perform.

    State sanctions must be levied.

    • The Health Commissioner can block the admission of new patients until staff levels support them or shut down those facilities that do not meet standards over a long period of time;
    • The Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) can suspend or halt Medicaid payments;
    • The Attorney General can prosecute for civil or criminal violations.

    Enforcement will result in fewer, but better and safer options. (more…)

  • Nursing Shortages Require Better Oversight of Virginia Nursing Homes – Part One – The Problem

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    sherlockj

    By James C Sherlock

    We have some great nursing facilities in Virginia. We also have far more than our share of bad ones.

    Virginia has a decision to make about the latter.

    The federal government sets standards for those that are paid with federal funds.  It both levies fines and denies payments as it feels appropriate.

    But more direct action to assure quality of and safety in nursing homes is left to the states, who both license and regulate them.

    There are simply not enough nurses nationwide or in Virginia to staff all of the nursing homes currently operating.  And that shortage is not temporary.

    The decision Virginia needs to make is straightforward:

    • do we want to keep open to new patients the 289 certified nursing facilities currently in operation; or
    • do we want to ensure patient safety.

    We cannot have both.

    The nursing shortage cannot be a reason for government to leave open to new patients grossly understaffed nursing homes.  If that understaffing is sufficiently chronic, some must be closed.

    Among the bad facilities, some owners are scoundrels.  Others are just not able to get it done.  Better enforcement will reduce the number of both.

    Actions must be taken to assure that when citizens need a nursing home, the state license can be trusted as a sign that basic standards are maintained.

    That they will be safe.

    (more…)

  • What It Means to Be a Citizen

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    James A. Bacon

    Photo credit: Financial Times

    by James A. Bacon

    The 4th of July, commemorating our nation’s declaration of independence, is an occasion to think about what we appreciate about America. Amidst our social breakdown, culture wars, and vitriolic politics, that’s not an easy thing to do. Among the most demoralizing aspects of our times is the abysmal level of understanding of the source of the precious rights — freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble and petition the government — that we take for granted.

    As Joni Albrecht, director of the John Marshall Center for Constitutional History & Civics, observes in the Virginia Mercury, less than half of U.S. adults could name all three branches of government; only one in four U.S. adults could name a single right identified in the First Amendment.

    Many of our schools fail to teach the basic knowledge required to be a functioning and contributing citizen. According to Virginia Department of Education data, only 70% of Virginia school children passed their Civics & Econ Standards of Learning exam in the 2021-22 school year. Only one in five scored “advanced.” In other words, 30% are politically illiterate, and another 50% are marginally literate. (more…)

  • The Document That Inspired the Declaration of Independence

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    Robin Beres

    “Give me liberty or give me death!” So proclaimed Patrick Henry in delivering his great speech on the Rights of the Colonies, before the Virginia Assembly, convened in Richmond on March 23, 1775, as re-created in this artwork by Currier and Ives. (Photo: Heritage Images/ Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

    by Joseph Postell

    It’s common for Americans on July 4th to read and discuss the Declaration of Independence, and to reflect on its principles and ideas. Those principles and ideas are often attributed solely — though wrongly — to Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the draft of the Declaration.

    Jefferson’s draft was modified in two stages: first, by a “Committee of Five” composed of Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston; and second, by the entire Continental Congress.

    The Congress discussed Jefferson’s draft for three days, and made significant changes (according to Jefferson, “depredations”) to his work.

    In short, the Declaration was the work not of a single person, but of the representatives of the American people. Jefferson was the author of the draft, but it was an American Declaration.
    (more…)

  • Supreme Court Decision on Racial Preferences in College Recruiting Should Doom Much of DEI in State Institutions of Higher Learning

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    It is the day to celebrate America’s freedoms.  It is also a good day to enforce them.

    United States Constitution, Amendment XIV, Section 1.

    All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.

    No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

    Supreme Court decisions in the Harvard and UNC cases make unambiguously unconstitutional many elements of the way Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is currently implemented in colleges and universities.

    For example, clearly there is no legal space between unconstitutional processes in the recruiting of students and the same processes in the recruiting and promotion of faculty.

    None. (more…)

  • We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident….

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

  • What’s Good for the Goose….

    Posted on

    by

    Dick Hall-Sizemore

    The logical next shoe has dropped in the fight over college admissions. A civil rights organization has sued Harvard University, alleging that its practice of giving preference to legacy applicants and applicants whose parents are big donors discriminates against applicants of color. The complaint even quotes the recent Supreme Court majority opinion: “A benefit provided to some applicants but not to others necessarily advantages the former group at the expense of the latter.”

  • Culture Wars about College Admissions Tend to Ignore Guaranteed Entry from Virginia Community Colleges

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    Much angst has accompanied the Supreme Court’s decision banning overt racial preferences in admissions to colleges as violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

    The conversations in the comments to Jim Bacon’s article on admissions were as split philosophically/politically as is anything else these days.

    I will not rehash them.

    But many of the comments seemed based on an unwritten assumption that a kid is blocked from higher education if not admitted into a four-year college out of high school.

    That, if true, would indeed be a cruel fate. And headline-seeking race hustlers who tell such kids they have been permanently disadvantaged would have a point.

    But such a tale is objectively and observably not true. Anyone who tells a kid that is lying, and lying unforgivably.

    There are 250,000 Virginia students who prove the story false. (more…)

  • Whites Under-Represented in UVa’s Entering Classes

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    James A. Bacon

    by James A. Bacon

    As the debate unfolds about how to apply the U.S. Supreme Court ruling restricting the use of race as a factor in college admissions, it would be helpful for the discussion to be rooted in reality. At the University of Virginia, any dialogue should be based upon the recognition that admissions policies have transformed the racial/ethnic profile of the undergraduate student body over the past 10 years.

    According to enrollment data published by the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia (SCHEV), the racial/ethnic make-up of students entering UVa for the first time (as first-year students or community college transfers) has changed significantly between the fall of 2013-14 and the fall of 2022-23:

    Remarkably, the percentage of undergraduate White students has declined from 59.3% of the entering class at UVa to 46.9% over a single decade. Non-Hispanic Whites are now a minority. (more…)

  • A New “Landscape” for UVa Admissions

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Credit: Bing Image creator. College landscape in the style of William Constable.

    by Walter Smith

    With the recent U.S. Supreme Court restricting “affirmative action” in college and university admissions, an all-consuming question in Charlottesville is how the University of Virginia might change its policies and guidelines for admitting students.

    While prohibiting the use of race as a decisive factor in admissions, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts allowed for holistic reviews that took into account race as part of an applicant’s sum-of-life experiences. Harvard University announced it intends to drive a truck through that loophole. Likewise, UVa President Jim Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom, who last week proclaimed their intent to ignore the ruling as much as possible, have not only lined up a truck but are revving up the engine.

    The admissions process at UVa is opaque. The administration has refused, repeatedly, to provide me data concerning students admitted for the fall of 2023 or to answer my deep-dive questions for admissions in 2022, regarding which the Admissions Office was very cooperative… until it wasn’t. In particular, the Office has not been forthcoming about its use of a tool, “Landscape,” developed by the College Board, the same people who administer the SAT exams. (more…)

  • Bacon News of the Week

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    When my daughter Sara Bacon was in high school, she had a good friend named Katie Macon. I always thought they’d make a great law firm — Macon Bacon & Associates, or some such. Never did I imagine that Macon Bacon would be the name of a college baseball team, much less that it would be assailed as politically incorrect.

    But such is the utterly insane and humorless world that we live in. Playing upon the national mania for cured pig meat, a Macon, Ga.-based baseball team calling itself Macon Bacon has a bacon strip named Kevin as a mascot and sells menu items like “6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, Bacon Wrapped Bacon, Steak Cut Bacon, Bacon Cheeseburger, Bacon Dog, Bacon Loaded Cheese Fries, Bacon Loaded Mac N Cheese, and Bacon Chips.”

    Now killjoys with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine have denounced the team, reports the New York Post: “Macon Bacon’s glorification of bacon, a processed meat that raises the risk of colorectal cancer and other diseases, sends the wrong message to fans.” The physicians recommended plant-based imitations of meat as a substitute.

    Macon Bacon President Brandon Raphael basically told the physicians group to take their zucchini and eggplants and shove them where the sun don’t shine. The fans love the team’s name, he said. “The Macon Bacon will be sizzling forever and will not consider a name change. Ever.”

    Yessss! –JAB

  • Setting the Stage for the Great Race-in-Admissions Debate

    Posted on

    by

    James A. Bacon

    Should admissions be color blind?

    by James A. Bacon

    People have been asking me what I think about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibiting colleges and universities from using race as a specific basis for admitting students. I’m not a legal scholar, so I won’t offer any opinions on the legal or constitutional merits of the decision. I speak as a citizen.

    My sense is that the Court has made a huge step forward in the generations-long campaign to build a color-blind society. If you share the ideal that a man should be judged by the content of his character, not the color of his skin, you will applaud the ruling regardless of its legalities. And if you believe that the condition of Blacks and Hispanics can be elevated in American society only through preferential treatment of their race and ethnicity, you will see it as a blow in furtherance of White supremacy.

    The immediate impact will be to generate waves of punditry on how colleges and universities should implement the ruling — or evade it. Prevailing commentary seems to hold that most university administrators will “take a hard look” at their admissions policies, then tweak them to accomplish what they want — higher percentages of Blacks and Hispanics — without triggering lawsuits.

    That certainly seems to be the case at the University of Virginia, where President Jim Ryan and Provost Ian Baucom have said in a statement to the university community that they will follow the law but also “continue to do everything within our legal authority to recruit and admit a class of students who are diverse across every possible dimension and to make every student feel welcome and included here at UVA.” (more…)

  • A Simple Statement of Fact about the Public Schools

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    sherlockj

    by James C. Sherlock

    I know. Schools. Again.

    But Virginia’s schools have been shown to be getting worse faster than those of other states.

    Perhaps we should do something.

    Read the National Assessment Board’s press release from June 21st. One paragraph drew my attention:

    The LTT assessments in reading and math measure fundamental skills among nationally representative, age-based cohorts and have been administered since 1971 and 1973, respectively.

    Students were generally making progress until 2012, when scores started declining.

    Scores took a sharp downturn during the pandemic. Today, the average score for 13-year-olds on the LTT reading assessment is about where it was in 1971.

    Despite the large decline in math, the average score in 2023 remains higher than in 1973.

    Declining since 2012 nationwide.

    Virginia’s have been declining since 2017. In a hurry.

    (more…)

  • Governor, GOP Not Selling Their Tax Reforms

    Posted on

    by

    Steve Haner

    Time’s A-Wasting.

    by Steve Haner

    The following paragraph was written five months ago. It is reproduced now with some emphasis added.

    The 2023 Virginia General Assembly tax debate is just another revival of an old political show. Last year it ended well for new Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) and for those hoping to pay less in state taxes.  This year is not guaranteed to see the same outcome, not unless there is a late push to engage public attention as the House and Senate seek compromise.

    (more…)

Now Available

Book cover of 'Dust Mites: A Second American Revolution' by James A. Bacon, featuring astronauts planting a flag with a blue and white emblem on a lunar landscape, with Earth visible in the background.
For sale on Amazon.com

The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….

This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.

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Bacon’s Rebellion is Virginia’s leading politically non-aligned portal for news, opinions and analysis about state, regional and local public policy. Read more about us here.

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